


Paint my memory

by armoredsoftie



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: And sometimes she doesn't deal well with her father's death, Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Family Feels, Family Issues, Father-Daughter Relationship, Iron Dad, Morgan is a teenager, Peter is there for her, Teenage Rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 05:17:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18866500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armoredsoftie/pseuds/armoredsoftie
Summary: Morgan has grown under her father's shadow, but without his warm embrace. As she ages, the world doesn't forget the Legend, but she feels his memory slipping away. Endgame spoilers ahead.





	Paint my memory

Sometimes, Morgan gets mad. Really mad. She’s a smart girl, and the worst part is that she knows she is. But no matter what a genius she might be, emotional maturity is something she can only gain with age.

Morgan is sixteen, and she’s pissed.

Mom is away. She had an emergency company trip to Asia, somewhere in Japan. Morgan doesn’t actually care. This happens a lot. Mom is old now, but she has always been a workaholic. She used to say Dad was like that, he was way worse. She doesn’t talk about dad very much anymore.

It’s been like that for years. Like he’s fading away.

Morgan wishes she could remember him. She has some memories, but they’re vage. Those kinds of very early memories she’s not really sure if they’re real, a dream, a reconstruction of stories she’s heard from other people, or a combination of all three. It’s not like she doesn’t know how he looks like: in the decade that has passed since his death, Tony Stark’s image has become almost like a pagan saint. Everywhere she goes, somewhere, there’s something of him. A sticker on a school binder, someone with an Iron Man phone case, the new biopic that’s coming out with that stupid actor who harassed Mom for like a month...

The giant Iron Man mural in the park a few blocks away from her school. And Morgan hates it.

It’s so corny. People even leave flowers and candles sometimes. She once saw one of her classmates _praying_ to the image of her deceased father for a good grade on his algebra test. Some inexplicable rage had taken over her body that day, and she had then proceeded to “accidentally” make the boy’s backpack explode. He hadn’t been wearing it, and Morgan explained that she didn’t want to physically harm him, no matter how much Mom had screamed.

But that day, it’s dark. It’s going to rain. She’s carrying spray paint, because Miles had asked her to drop by the store close to her school and get him that new shade of red he was dying to try.

And Morgan is pissed.

But she’s also an idiot. At least when it comes to her emotional processing anyway. So when the cops catch her drawing obscenities over the stupid mural, she doesn’t have any better idea than to run. And she gets caught, easily. Because she can’t run fast, or jump buildings, or climb walls, or fly. She isn’t _special_ like that. Sometimes she feels like she isn’t special at all.

“How old are you?” asks the police woman sitting by the desk. Morgan fidgets with her handcuffs, her eyes glued to the ground.

“Sixteen.”

“Where do you live?”

She can’t really answer that, can she? The lake house had stopped being a home years ago. The apartment in Manhattan is almost always empty. The mansion in California is her favourite place, but is not a home.

“Queens,” she answers. The policewoman keeps writing down everything in her computer. She seems pissed.

Another policeman walks by the desk and stopps to read the computer screen. He makes a strange face and then turns to Morgan.

“ _Vandalizing an Iron Man memorial?_ What the hell’s your problem, kid?”

Morgan feels her cheeks turn red and her neck heat up. She would snap back at him if it wouldn’t make her situation way worse.

The policewoman doesn’t even blink. “Read her name, Carl.”

The guy, Carl, opens his eyes like plates once he reads her name on the computer. He looks confused, then laughs.

“Well, I guess we all get pissed at our folks from time to time,” he says, and then walks away laughing.

Morgan feels mortified. The police woman keeps taking her information and remains indifferent.

“I need the phone number of your mother, a tutor, or responsible adult that can come to pick you up. Then I’ll discuss with them the terms of your penalizing.”

Calling Mom is impossible, she’s on the other side of the globe. Happy would come, but she would sell her out to Mom. Same with Uncle Rhodey. She had no other option.

“What the hell did you do now?” asks Peter’s very tired voice from behind her. Morgan raises her head to meet him as he enters the police station. He looks exhausted, and Morgan feels awful for dragging him all the way across the city for this.

“You must be Mr. Parker,” greets him the policewoman, and proceeds to explain to him the situation. As the seconds pass, Morgan can feel Peter’s increasing glare into her neck, but she remains with her eyes to the ground.

After deciding that paying a penalty fee should be enough punishment, they let them go. She’s relieved, the fee is about ten grand, and she can easily pay that from her allowance without Mom finding out. What she doesn’t expect is Peter’s judgmental face when she informs him.

“You know you got lucky, right?,” he says, very slowly. Morgan frowns.

“I got caught.”

“No, not because of that. You got away with it.”

She doesn't understand. “I’m paying a fee-”

Peter lets out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, pocket money for you. You got away with a pat in the back. How do you think this situation would’ve ended up if Miles had gotten caught doing what you were doing?”

Morgan stares at him. “He wouldn't have been caught, because he’s Spiderman. He can run from the police.”

Now, Peter is definitely mad. “And he’s also not a white rich brat.”

He has a good point, but Morgan won’t allow him to berate her. “Why are you so mad? It’s just a graffiti.”

Peter doesn’t answer for a few seconds. It almost looks like he won’t.

“It wasn’t _any_ mural that you destroyed, Mo. It was an Iron Man Memorial. I honestly can’t understand how incredibly disrespectful-”

“Why do you care so much?” she interrupts him, “he wasn’t your father.”

An ugly silence settles between them. For some reason, Morgan feels like crying. She doesn't let any tears betray her, and keeps looking at Peter, challenging.

He doesn't look mad anymore, just sad. He can’t meet her eyes.

“No,” he says after a long minute. “No he wasn’t.”

Morgan crosses her arms in her chest, not feeling the gratification of the win at all.

“But?”

Peter sighs. “But he was yours. You should have more respect for that.”

They don’t say much else after that. Peter walks her to her apartment, talks to Happy and MJ over the phone, orders a pizza, and stays the night with her. Morgan just wants him gone. She just wants to be alone.

When Peter wakes her up the next morning with breakfast and her lunch ready for school, she asks for forgiveness. There’s nothing to forgive, Mo, he says, but it feels empty. When he leaves for work and leaves her alone in her huge apartment that she occasionally shares with her mother and an ever present ghost, only then she allows herself to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](https://www.armoredsoftie.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/armoredsoftie)


End file.
